1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technology for use with a microscope apparatus, and more specifically to a technology for observing a time series change of an observation specimen.
2. Description of the Related Art
A confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus is widely known as a microscope apparatus. The confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus focuses a laser beam to a small spot beam, converts the light from an observation specimen to an electric signal when the observation specimen is scanned by the spot beam, generates an image of the observation specimen based on the electric signal, and displays the image on an image monitor.
Conventionally, such a microscope apparatus has been widely used as means for observing a three-dimensional structure and style of a cell and tissue. However, these days, it is used as means for analyzing the dynamics of a live cell structure.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei 6-27383 discloses the technology of obtaining a plurality of tomographic images of a specimen in the optical axis direction at predetermined time intervals, generating a difference image of a tomographic image of a specimen with a lapse of time, generating a pseudo three-dimensional image of a specimen from the difference image, and displaying the generated image with a lapse of time, thereby observing a three-dimensional change of a specimen with time.
One of the methods of observing a dynamic change of a cell in a time series can be a multipoint time lapse observation. A multipoint time lapse observation refers to an observation of a time series change in each of a plurality of observation areas set on an observation specimen.
For example, when a multipoint time lapse observation is made using a confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus, an operator registers a plurality of target areas in an observation specimen in the confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatuss, which is obtained by combining an electric XY stage device with a motorized focusing unit, and the confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus repeats, as an experiment, obtaining an image of each target area at predetermined time intervals or a predetermined number of times.
When the experiment is started, the confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus repeats obtaining an image of each target area by operating the electric XY stage device and the motorized focusing unit. The operation of repeating an image is performed by an operator in the order the target areas are registered.
Registering target areas is performed by an operator searching for target areas from among cells distributed in a specimen, but the operator does not consider the travel of the electric XY stage device and the motorized focusing unit. Therefore, there are a number of wasteful operations of the electric XY stage device and the motorized focusing unit, and the wasteful operations bring about the problem of a prolonged time required for the experiment.
In the time series observation of a live cell, it is possible that a shape change and travel of a cell reaches an unexpected range. Therefore, the cell can deviate from a predetermined observation view. When a cell deviates from an observation view during the experiment of a multipoint time lapse observation, for example, the experiment continues by an operator registering a new target area in a confocal point laser scanning microscope apparatus, thereby enabling subsequent observation. However, obtaining an image of a target area added and registered during the experiment is performed last in repeatedly obtaining a series of images. Therefore, as in the above-mentioned case, there are a number of cases in which the electric XY stage device and the motorized focusing unit perform wasteful travel.